Long live the Philippines.

Kapamilya, a slogan adopted by one of the major Philippine media networks, translates to “one at heart.” As Internet usage and media engagement grows, Filipinos gain greater access to media. Thanks to media, Filipinos can become “Kapamilya.”

The government is unhappy with media, but the public is not. Rappler has yet to be completely shut down. If and when that does happen, where exactly will that leave the Filipino media? Where does it stand now?

Television Domination

The Philippine media landscape is branded as a multimedia market that offers consumers print, online, radio and television media.

According to BBC News, the Philippines has more than 600 radio stations and 500 newspaper titles. However, a duopoly exists between two major cable networks—ABS-CBN Corporation and GMA Network Incorporated—and places television media on top. These networks reach anywhere from 81 to 98 percent of the Filipino public.

Duopoly in Control

Since television is the most accessible type of media in the Philippines, the two major network companies—ABS-CBN Corporation and GMA Network—subsequently own a vast majority of media holdings. Known as the Big Two, these networks are commercially driven and essentially run the media market.

According to the Media Ownership Monitor, the two media conglomerates have a combined market share of 79.44 percent. The Big Two also reach 80.72 of the Filipino audience through their individual TV channels and amass 47.2 percent of FM radio listenership.

ABS-CBN Corporation and GMA Network are the most watched, most listened to and most clicked on media companies. Together, they offer a cross-media presence in every form.

Maria Ressa and Rappler…

News media are too using social media to stay connected to the public that they serve. Nevertheless, the government is politically driven to alter the state of media as Filipinos have come to know and appreciate it. Currently, at the center of attention in the realm of news media is the battle between Maria Ressa and President Duterte.

Maria Ressa is a Filipina journalist who co-founded the leading social news network site, Rappler in 2012. Ressa has 25 years of journalistic experience under her belt, and her most prominent role was CNN’s bureau chief in Manila and Jakarta. Later as CNN’s lead investigative reporter, she focused her efforts on terrorism in Southeast Asia.

“I think we have the business model that this entire news industry is looking for,” Ressa told the Southeast Asia Globe. “For traditional media the growth curve is linear. Right now in the US, it’s declining. But if you combine traditional media with tech, the growth curve is phenomenal.”

The word Rappler comes from the root words “rap”, or to discuss, and “ripple”, or to make waves. Stated on their about page, the name is meant to inspire its journalists and the community to enter a “new world of limitless collaboration enabled by new technology and connected by social media.”

Veteran journalists, such as Ressa herself, are responsible for the range of broadcast, print and web coverage. Through a nationwide chat initiative, Rappler journalists are running workshops to actively interconnect with the public.

Rappler, like Ressa herself, is fixated on engaging the public through the power of social media and new technology to create social change.

…Take on Duterte

Rappler’s next goal for social change: change the fate that President Duterte handed the news platform.

Although Ressa is petite, her goals—and words—pack a punch. Ressa believes that President Duterte has a political agenda against Rappler and is responsible for the investigation of their ownership. While other news organizations have kept quiet, Ressa publically denounces this “attack on press freedom to the world.”

In an effort to save Rappler and defend freedom of the press in the Philippines, Ressa is at the forefront of this battle against Duterte’s government. Ressa has called Duterte out for targeting journalists and plans to continue this fight in the Supreme Court.

For many campaigners, the fight for press freedom intertwines with the fight for democracy itself. If media are kapamilya, the outcome of this battle will send a message to Filipinos and the world where it stands on the issue of press freedom.